THANK YOU! I just found out that I am the winner of this beautiful Beastie! Thank you SO much for your beautiful work on this guitar. I am a huge SG fan and I can't wait to get it in my hands! 🤘😎🤘
I'd leave it alone and not fake age it at all, you wouldn't chuck tea over the Mona Lisa to make it look older, I know it's an Epiphone but all guitars are a work of art! Let them age naturally! In my humble opinion, If you want a guitar that looks old buy one that is old. If you want one that is relic'd then play it like you're Slash/Clapton/Hendrix/Vai (or any other of the great guitarists) for 20-30 years.
I thought when potting pickups you're supposed to let the wax cool a little before removing the pickup as it stops you losing the important wax running out. Not pick it up & dangle the thing like a fish on a hook?
One of the spices that is in curry called Turmeric which is yellow ocre color would probably stain the plastic all by it's self. I have a soup ladle that is stained because of some soup I served with it that had Turmeric in it. It started out as an off white before it got stained and after it is a pail yellowish cream color.
A full "wiring" video would be great - going from pickup assembly to final install/solder. I know you've done it as part of previous videos, but a full tutorial would be handy. I was recently trying to find your last wiring video for a friend and couldn't actually track it down. Heck, you can probably just splice part of this video with one of your previous wiring tutorials, give it an appropriate title, and that would suffice.
I see most people when doing fretwork tape-ing the fretboard, but considering there is a large amount of guitars with the same scale length, why don'y you (laser) cut a template out of thin acrylic and use a couple of double side tapes to fix it, that should cut down a bit on the time and it is reusable.
My lad made me take back a PRS SE for an Epiphone SG just as production moved from Korea to China. The early Chinese guitar was shocking quality and I took it back insisting on a Korean made SG that I would only pick up once it had had a going over by a tech. That was bearable but the quality was not great. Looks like the Chinese guitars have improved but they do need a bit of fettling. The PRS on the other hand was perfect out the box.
Got the Gibson version from 2007. Like it a lot. All in all, the craftsmenship, time and parts you put into it is on its own more valueable than the guitar was when it was new. Very impressive.
I gigged a old Korean epi sg for years in the early 90s ( think it was one of the first lefty ones 91 I think) and I loved it but it snapped twice at the heel and repaied twice by myself with just wood glue an clamps ( snapped above the first repair the second time ) I loved the guitar and I swapped out the pickups in the late 90s with Gibson pickups from my lp standard that I put SDs In. The guitar ended up snapping at the headstock when someone sat on it at a after gig party and i never got round to fixing it.
The making of the pickups was fascinating, though remembering the right colours would be beyond me! The polarity tool is a very useful thing- where might I get one? Incidentally, at 4lb 10oz, the body and neck weigh an ounce more than I did when I was born! I was kept in an incubator for a couple of weeks, but being born at such a low weight doesn't seem to have had any lasting effects as I've not been admitted to hospital in all the 66 years I've survived since then.
Oh... I few weeks ago I commented that this was my very first electric and now you've got it on the show! Mine wasn't anywhere near as light though. And the neck was huge.
"... bad boy guitar." Yes, and then, you're going to attack it with curry? You utter madlad.... that's epic. Dave Lister would be so proud. Also, yes please do more pickup winding and wiring? It's the biggest mystery in electric guitars. It's umm.... it's the unexplained source of tone. Well, that and Rocky road apparently?
Great attention to the pickup building ... but are you also putting that attention into the control parts (measuring actual kohms and uFs)? And what about pickup height, bass/treble tilt, and screw pole height adjustments? Hopefully you are.... Ben, I was racing down the pickup building rabbit hole, scratch building a winder even, until I figured out how effective measuring and carefully selecting the control parts and pickup setups were for guitar tone. These days, unless I'm swapping the type of pickup, I just keep the stock pickups (or even install 'cheap' ebay pickups) and spend my time on the control circuit for 1/10th the cost. Something fun: next build you do, try rotating the bridge pickup 180deg so the screw poles are on the neck side bobbin of the bridge pickup and raise them 1/8th inch -- I find this gives a great P90 tone (P90 screw poles run along that same vector under the strings) while maintaining hum protections. I've done this mini mod on three of my HH guitars so far. It's completely reversible if you decide you don't like it.
I’ve got that exact same shirt Josh 🤘🏻 my goal is to completely build every aspect of a guitar. Next thing to dive into is pickup winding. Good information .
Cool video I know it’s not a full tutorial on pickup winding and hopefully there will be one to come in the future . But one thing I notice on pretty much all pickup winding demos is the wind direction on each bobbin and corresponding polarity never really get explained that well and also corresponding to how they work together in a set so they are not weak in middle positions if that makes sense I’ve not long started winding pickups got my p90 / tele/ strat sets down but humbuckers confuse me a bit every set I’ve wound have sounded great on their own but bung it in the middle position and sound tinny and weak I know it’s down to my polarity and wind direction but I haven’t full worked it out yet and gave up on RU-vid telling me as it’s never properly covered which is strange lol Be great tho if you guys done a demo and explained how pickups work together instead of only how they get wound as a solo pickup please 😁😁 great stuff tho 👊🏻👊🏻
With pickups, is there any practical difference between the screws and the slugs? I've seen humbuckers with one screw coil and one slug coil, ones with both slugs and ones with both screws. Is there a reason for choosing one over the other?
Might want to be careful sticking the pickup direct into a fridge after coming straight out of the heated pot. Cooling wax too quickly can effect the way it sets and can cause cracks to form (I don't know if pickup wax is maybe designed to deal with this better than usual wax though)
I have that very same guitar and I went through and changed everything in it too new pickups new electronics new bone new tuners it is now a very nice guitar it was a piece of crap when I got it!
More pickup videos please, maybe explaining some of the differences between similar but different types and any challenges involved in making them; filtertron/humbucker, fender style single/P90, humbucker/SC size humbucker/noisless single coil etc
I remember the gibson "les paul sg) being for sale in pawn shops in the 80s. As i remember they felt great but were unstable or kinda wobbly at the neck joint. I wonder if in 20 or 30 years these will fair better or worse
@25:20 Sorry, I've watched this again and again. "What we're looking for is black on the screw, white on the slug... What we have is black on the screw, white on the slug. That means we want to flip the magnet." ???? Flips the magnet. "So now we have black on the screw and white on the slug." ?!@%$$ I'm lost. Are you testing that we're paying attention, is the editor playing with us or have I totally missed something?
All I'd have done is scrape the neck down to the sealer coat as I've done on my other Epiphones leaving a stinger. And instead of using the covers and rings I'd use gold hex poles black chrome covers and swap to the Batwing also black. Pickups like the SD full Shred with two neck pups and respective A500DPDT for Series Parallel wiring on bridge and neck but the middle being series and a pull on master tone but a TBX tone pot with HPF mod. Refinishing in a relicable shell pink perhaps but unlikely. Always do the fret work and setup. Epiphone with brass nut look right 12:20 preset idle pulleys with springs as tensioners in between.. Like a modified bicycle rear derailleur. Would need wide flat rollers to guide still with hand.
Great to see some new faces and would indeed like to learn more about pickups. I went racing to the comments to literally beg you not to relic it, but alas tis already done.... I'm sad to say I wont be in that raffle......I have a white strat with a maple neck, I've always looked after it but never been precious about it. It has survived youthful parties, been left on the sofa and caught the sun , been dropped a few times......treat it like a tool, like a carpenter would a hammer......relicing can work on rare occasions but essentially it is total BS.........in my humble opinion!! I wonder if the new owner will keep it in a cotton wool lined case to preserve the relicing.....on the irony
I keep wondering what those heavily aged nitro finishes (on Murphy labs Les Paul's for example) will look like 50-60 years from now. I wonder if there will be anything left?
Look at 100 year old guitars with similar finishes. The 50s wasn’t the inception of the guitar or nitro. Relic’d guitars will simply continue to age as they are played and loved. Murphy lab has had some delaminating issues with their anodin stains which looked awful, an exception but I suppose some relicing techniques don’t always seem to pan out
What is that guitar in the background over your left shoulder? White with black pickguard, Humbucker and P-90 in the neck. Cool design and like the Jazzmaster trem too!
love your vids, wanna try atleast one of your bridge pickups thats pretty hot at around a 15 reading on how hot it is.what do u guys charge for a general bridge pickup wound in house?
Josh, I found that the pole spacing was different on Epiphone pickups vs Fender's. Did you have to think about that when you were selecting the bobbins for these pickups?
Hey John, I did indeed. The f (fender) space and the g (Gibson) space is the first thing to decide upon as you’re gathering your components. F space is around 52mm from E pole Center to E pole Center whereas a Gibson is more like 50mm. This is mainly due to the slight difference in string spacing on each brand. I hope that helps demystify. Thanks for watching
Holy moly, that was great 👍 I always buy pickups cause I didn't fully understand how they were made but this looks like I could do this with some practice and a bit of training. Would love to see more
yeah unless you have enough copper string in different gauges, a winding machine, all the measurement equipment, the dexternity... the plastic parts, the other parts, magnets, enough wax to pot it... skill in soldering and electronics... none of thats seems to me an easy deal
Love the comments section, makes me giggle. Had one sg400 years ago an sg was my dream guitar, saved up for an epiphone got it home absolutely hated it the body contour is wrong and uncomfortable and the body shape and layout was different to a real gibson. Pickups were awful, stock roswell. Any improvement in these guitars are warranted. Nice job.
I did love my gs400 back in the day, but I was ignorant and even with its issues it was far better than my other options at the time.. even came in a real Gibson hard case lol. I thought I was the SHIT! 😆
Why don't you have a beautician's wax heater? Or the same thing sold by stewmac with "iz 4 guitar" written on it as a glue pot? You get temperature control and don't have to worry about heating the bobbins past their glass transition temperature. If you make a lot you'll probably save on the energy bill alone and you won't be filling the workshop with steam or have a fire risk.
Sorry, but I remain unconvinced about pickups. Are Lollars etc really worth the amount of money they charge? It's still a bunch of coils of copper wire round a bunch of magnets. I really don't believe there is that much of a difference between brands. Some differences, sure, but i'll bet in a blind test, if two different manufacturers used the same gauge of wire, and number of turns, there would be few who could reliably tell them apart.
There is a very fine line and the distinction between the various high end pickups is there, imo, but subtle. I think the thing is that when you buy a Lollar pickup for example you always know that you are getting top quality and that isn't always the case with other makers
The shape of the pickup routs just put me right off. Plus they were as sloppy as the shielding paint work - so you can see where some of the corners are cut to make the guitar to a price. But I'd guess that the vast bulk of guitar players will never ever have the covers off so it'll never get noticed. What I got most from this is that I am in the same boat as Ben - I want to learn how to wind pickups, but I don't actually want to wind pickups. Making sawdust is fine, same with paint and general setup and maintenance - but pickups are something I really should leave to the experts.
So conflicted …. Loved the concept of upgrading the Epiphone, loved the detailed pickup winding. …. Am not looking forward to the relic job … please don’t do this … it’s heartbreaking. I would buy 10 tickets if you restore to perfection - a relic guitar is worthless tat
Going to let you off with the knifing of a Gibson, (I've told you before), now 1 curry 2 more pick up please and also make Ben do it, for knifing the guitars, and he gets no machine hand wound lol yes it's unfair and cruel, so is knifing guitar.
Is it an urban myth that Les Paul wouldn't allow his name to be associated with the SG? If so, can we hear his bones turning in the grave, or did Gibson make sure he was cremated?
Total waste of time relicing that finish. Either strip it back to the wood, and stain it if it’s half decent wood, or respray with interesting colors or graphics.
I suppose it depends on who the guitar is for.. we could easily make it all shiny etc but in this case I'm trying to replicate a particular Gibson I saw recently
I hate relic'ing and fake aging of instruments. In my opinion you age your guitar by playing it for years and years. Whenever I hear "Aged by a luthier" my heart screams FAKE, FAKE, FAKE!!!!!!!! Hate it
